…and that was not even my first visit of the week to Dean’s Yard…
…then this wonderful Tallis Scholars concert at the start of the St John’s Smith Square (SJSS) Holy Week Festival.
It is hard to explain why, as non-religious people, this type of religious music works so well for me and Janie. I suppose it is simply because we love the music of that Renaissance period and the finest music from the period tends to be the sacred rather than the secular music.
Janie and I enjoyed a pre concert and an interval drink in the crypt, a venue which Janie always enjoys. Great to see something close to a full house at SJSS too; we don’t so often see that, sadly. The place seems warmer when full.
Here is a link to the SJSS resources on this concert. For those who don’t wish to click, the main take away from that material is that this concert showcases music that was guarded by Popes during the high Renaissance within the confines of the Sistine Chapel.
Lots of Palestrina with the magnificent Allegri Miserere as the highlight to kick off the second half of the gig.
Here is a beautiful video of The Tallis Scholars performing the Miserere, albeit some 25 years ago:
As in that 1994 version, at our concert several of the voices spread out across the concert hall, to give an intriguing surround-sound effect.
Below, from that same 1994 concert I believe, is some Palestrina, Nunc Dimittis, not one of the pieces we heard in April 2019:
No such simplicity in April 2019 – The Tallis Scholars encore was Lotti’s Crucifixus for eight voices. At least seven-and-three-quarter voices above my pay grade.
Here is another mob, confusingly named Tallis Vocalis, all performing that lovely Lotti at an appropriate pay grade:
The Tallis Scholars concert we enjoyed 14 April 2019 was a simply lovely concert. If you ever get a chance to see them, we really do recommend them highly.
Janie and I both loved this concert. We weren’t previously familiar with the works of this Renaissance composer, Clément Janequin, nor this eponymous Ensemble.
But by the end of the concert we were familiar with both and had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. All that despite it being a Thursday evening at the end of long working days for both of us and ahead of long working days to boot.
This was the Ensemble’s 20th anniversary programme:
Nous Sommes de l’Ordre de Saint Babouyn by Loyset Compere
Tant que Vivray / Au Joly Boys / Je ne Menge Point de Porc / Vien Tost by Claudin de Sermisy
N’As tu Poinct Mis ton Hault Bonnet / Mon Amy M’Avoit Promis by Ninot le Petit
Bransles d’Ecosse / La Romaine by Guillaume Morlaye
Mille Regretz / Faulte d’Argent / Douleur Me Bat / El Grillo / Nymphes des Boys / Scaramella by Josquin Desprez
Les Cris de Paris / Qu’est-ce d’Amour? / Il Estoit une Fillette / Au Verd Boys/Le Chant des Oyseaulx by Clement Janequin
Fantaisie by Albert de Rippe
Or Vien Ca / O Mal d’Aymer / Ung Jour Robin / L’Amour, la Mort et la Vie / My Levay Par Ung Matin / La Guerre by Clement Janequin
Twenty years after that, they looked and sounded a bit like this:
The above piece formed part of the concert we heard. The following one did not, but is lovely.
Here follows a video of a whole gig post 2020, which includes several of the works we heard in 1999. Renaissance music never goes out of fashion:
Sometimes people like me have a pivotal moment in their self-education about music. I discovered this week (writing in February 2018) that mine was on 31 October 1987.
You’ll need to roll with this one, dear reader, it is a somewhat convoluted tale but in the end it is riddled with strange coincidences twixt 2018 and 1987. I hope this piece has some interesting general insights too.
…and spotted that the William Byrd specific concert would include “Though Amaryllis Dance In Green”. I remembered that song fondly as one of the first Tudor period songs I had heard and liked. I could even recall the tune and many of the words. I sought and found a simplified transcription of the music for lute on-line and decided that it would be a good example for me to work on with Ian Pittaway to further transcribe for solo voice and Tudor guitar.
On the day of the Gresham lecture, my mind began to wander (during the journey home after work I hasten to add, not during the lecture or work) about that song. I knew I still had a recording of it and would have kept notes on who was performing it.
It is extraordinary what memory can do. My mind latched on to that late 1980’s period and I was pretty sure I heard the music while I was getting ready for some professional exams.
I enjoyed a Saturday morning Radio 3 programme back then which played new releases and gave some interesting background on the recordings. But I also wanted to get my homework out of the way, so I tended to spool the radio show onto the trusty reel-to-reel and listen to it later in the day.
One week there had been a morning dedicated to early music and I remembered that some of the music had blown me away…
…to such an extent that I had edited that spool and preserved the recordings…
…then digitised it some 20 years or more later.
In fact, the recording that had really blown me away from that morning’s show was Josquin Des Prez and my records tell me that it was the Hilliard Ensemble.
…and as I am promoting the material so flagrantly for the Hilliards…and have of course now bought a copy of the album for myself, assuaging my guilt for the home taping…I’ll guess they won’t mind that I have uploaded my rather worn-sounding track – the one that blew me away – Ave Maria:
It really is a lovely recording of the piece. I have heard several others since and (perhaps it’s me) but that Hilliard recording of it is something very special.
When I got home to find all this out, there was a really nice message waiting for me (us) on Facebook from Ros Elliot, an old friend of Janie’s who now lives in Turkey. I recalled that Ros’s brother Paul used to sing with the Hillard Ensemble and of course, it transpired with a little e-digging, is indeed singing on that very album of Josquin music.
Also on that same old tape of mine, as I expected, was Though Amaryllis…which was also a recording by the Hilliard Ensemble. The Byrd was released the same year as the Josquin; 1987. Now available as part of a double-album of Byrd and Dowland…yes of course I procured this one too. Only available in CD form for now – click here or below:
So, given that the Hilliards got a sale and an advert out of me for this album too, I’m going to guess that they’ll be OK with the worn-sounding Though Amaryllis file going up for you to sample:
So then all I needed was my diary and the trusty BBC Genome project to resolve exactly when this introduction to Early Music happened.
…which yielded the next coincidence. The same broadcast had included Christopher Page with Gothic Voices singing, amongst other things, Ian Pittaway’s favorites Westron wynde and Hey nony nonyno. Clearly those didn’t make the cut on my edited tape. Perhaps I missed the start of the show…or perhaps those songs were too alien for my ears at that time.
…but dad did like the secular Josquin tracks very much; and the Byrd. Mum didn’t get early music at all. Chopin, Strauss (the waltz ones) and Tchaikovsky for her.
Momentous stuff in late 1987 – it really was the day that early music found me – and some wonderful coincidences in early 2018 while I found that momentous day again.
